Southwest Rice and Bean Salad with Sweet and Spicy Dressing

Continuing on the theme of the delicious southwestflavors, please let me introduce to you my new favorite salad. Oh, this salad. I could wax poetic about it’s lovely qualities.

But I won’t. Lucky for you.

My cousin Tami passed it along to me when I had declared the Great Bean Crusade in my home (a fight against the gagging and whining that occurs when beans are served at our dinner table).

The end result of this salad is incredible. Delicious, in fact.

The salad ingredients are traditionally tasty and paired with the tangy, sweet dressing – it’s a knockout. My husband devoured it, and that’s fairly impressive since he’s not crazy about having salad for dinner.

Never in a million years would I have expected the flavors of the dressing to be so melded and perfectly complete. This is definitely going to be a salad to grace our home and future potlucks for years to come.

Thanks, Tami. I owe you. Oh, and my kids even ate a bean or two. So actually, I owe you big time.

Dressing:

4 pickled jalepeno pepper rounds (found in the glass jars next to the olives, usually)

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

Instructions

Combine all of the salad ingredients together in a large bowl.

Combine dressing ingredients in blender until peppers are finely minced. Toss with salad. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Notes

This salad is so adaptable. I’ve added 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, subbed red onions for the green, doubled the dressing (just because!), and my favorite variation was made with a combination of wild and brown rice.

Follow @melskitchencafe on Instagram and show me the recipes you are making from my blog using the hashtag #melskitchencafe. I love seeing all the goodness you are whipping up in your kitchens!

I am so excited to try this and am thrilled about using the leftovers for lunches! Would it be better just to dress as much of the salad as you are going to eat right then or does it absorb more flavor over time? Thanks for all your great recipes!

This was Pretty good, I made with leftover brown cold rice , used just one can of black beans . I didn’t have pinto, I used 1 tsp of chili powder instead of 2 because I’m a whimp,I used 1/2 oliveoil and 1/4 water , I didn’t have canola oil. I didn’t add chicken was trying to make no meat meal for once and I didn’t have that either lol and it was great. Nice change for a summer meal my boys won’t probably eat this but I will.

Delicious! I added fresh garden chopped tomatoes, cilantro and a dollop of Daisy because well, I can’t not have sour cream with any mexi-dish. 🙂 Husband put it in a tortilla and loved it too – he asked why I didn’t try it soon. Lesson learned…move your recipes to the top of the ‘to try’ pile. Cheers from Kansas

After having this pinned for way too long, I finally made it tonight and it is amazing!!! All three of my kids gobbled it up too. My husband loves Mexican food to the point of being happy to have it every day, so finding a great recipe in that genre is as good as gold. Thank you!!

We take a container of this for our lunch instead of sandwiches. This will make seven 14 ounce portions. Our first change was adding 50% more dressing, mixing it in a bowl. We also substituted a diced Red Bell Pepper, not putting it in the dressing but adding it to the other ingredients. The last time we made it we had 3 to 4 extra cups of torn up chicken, so we tossed that in. It made it really good. After putting it together we divide it into portion sized containers, packing one each in our lunch all week. Believe me, we love it. Like the idea of adding diced tomatoes…

Mmmm…this one is a favorite at our house. I use a can of green chilies instead of the jalapeno rounds. I also used a mix of brown rice and wild rice and red beans. I am trying to get my son to eat more rice and this is a good way to go! My 2 year old says “This is too nummy Mom”. 🙂

Just made this Southwest Rice and Bean Salad for hubby and I’s lunches this week. It is so good! I make your Brown Rice Boiled and then covered for 10 minutes to go into it. We also like it with the dressing doubled. Thank you for so many excellent (nope, not good but excellent) recipes.

Yummy!! Hubby and I love this salad! The dressing is so good!! I doubled the dressing, and added some fresh cilantro. We ended up with a lot of leftovers, but I am sure they will be eaten! I like the idea I have seen in some other comments of putting this in a warm tortilla. Thanks Mel!

My family really enjoyed this refreshing salad. I cut back a little bit on the oil and used green chiles instead of the jalapeños because it’s what I had on hand. I’m thinking of using some of the leftovers in tacos. Thank you!

I made this tonight – WOW! What a nice recipe! I think I might make some extra dressing next time – and maybe even add in a bit of grated carrot? I eat mostly vegetarian meals while the rest of my family are meat-eaters, and I love how flexible this recipe turned out to be. The rest of the family added chicken to their tortillas and I added a bit of sharp cheddar cheese to mine. Wonderful!

I have made this several times over the past year or so and use one can black beans drained and one can chili beans, not drained. It adds a little bit more flavor. Just an idea. We love this salad plain as a main dish or wrapped up in a tortilla

I’d like to make this for an upcoming family gathering. Since we’ll be traveling about an hour to reach our destination, I’m wondering if this salad would do better tossed with the dressing when I arrive or if it would be better to let the dressing mix with the rice ahead of time? Any suggestions? Thanks!

This dressing is heaven! I whipped this up yesterday, only with breaded chicken strips since I had no grilled chicken, and everyone raved about it. Anything with beans (2 cans!), rice,, and corn makes me happy, but pulling it together with that dressing is sensational!

I’m going to try this with avocado instead of chicken. I bet it could be a lovely vegetarian dish. Have you ever tried using xantham gum or guar gum mixed with water to replace the oil in dressing? It is an amazing way to cut calories and fat!

I really love the flavor of this salad. Now I will say that maybe it was something I did wrong but it was just too much rice (I used white rice) which caused it to be a little on the dry side. I think the next time I make this I will only use 3 cups of rice. I think this would be excellent with uncle ben’s wild rice too!

I just had to comment…made this for dinner tonight and it was amazing! Used wild rice, fresh corn, and red onion but otherwise followed recipe exactly. The dressing totally made the salad. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe, definitely a keeper and it will reappear frequently! 🙂

This dressing was the best find! I wanted something that would go well with taco meat, corn, cheese and in my taco salad. With sour cream and cheese in the same bite it is the perfect creamy and flavorful compliment to the taco meat. I hope to make this into a southwest salad for the family dinner.

This recipe is SOOOO delicious!!! I made this for my husband and myself, so you can imagine we had a lot of leftovers, which was GREAT. I took it to work a few times for lunch, and so did my husband. Mine never got dry, even when reheating it. I had this recipe for a while and I am kicking myself for not making this earlier. This is a great and easy recipe that I will definitely be making over and over!!!

Well, once again you’ve made me look less like an amateur and more like a chef! This stuff is absolutely amazing! I added big chunks of avocado and tiny cherry tomatoes sliced in half along with fresh, seeded jalapenos and it is KILLER. I woke up this morning excited that I get to eat it again. Thanks again!

I made this last night and it was AMAZING! I didn’t know what to expect, but my entire family loved it, including my 4 year old daughter who hates beans. My husband put some of his in a tortilla with sour cream & hot sauce. I can’t wait to eat the leftovers tonight. 🙂 I had a bunch of limes laying around, and the fresh lime taste in this salad was perfect. Thank you!

Allison – so glad this salad was a hit! It’s a bit different from your everyday salad so I’m glad you loved the result and I think your husband is on to something with the “stuffing inside a tortilla” thing. Thanks!

Made this last night and we loved it. So glad I finally got around to this one. It makes tons! I think it is just crying out for some fresh cilantro, so I will try that next time. I may even make it without the chicken for a filling meatless meal. But I love the flavor the dressing brings to it.

Hi Erica – the recipe list doesn’t include the tomatoes but every so often when I make this, I’ll throw in a can of drained, petite diced tomatoes. I probably took the picture when I made it with this variation. Feel free to add them – this salad is pretty adaptable!

Mel, I just made this and it made a TON for my little family. I was super excited to eat it for lunch leftovers, but when I warmed it up it was a little dry. No worries – I ate it with tortilla chips and some homemade guac and it was amazing again! 🙂

I made this for dinner last night and it was surprisingly delicious! Given the ingredient list, it WAS a little surprising to me honestly. We all loved it, my husband, 9 year old son, and toddler son. Very good! Will make again, for sure. Thanks for sharing!

Melanie- I am wondering if you ever make “extras” and freeze meals for later use. I am participating in a freezer meal swap and would be interested to hear what recipes you think freeze well. I know the honey lime chicken enchiladas freeze great…any other ideas?

This looks delicious! I have a recipe somewhat similar that incorporates some of the same ingredients as well as sour cream casserole style. By the way, I made your chocolate chip cake today and everyone loved it. Next time I am going to serve it with seasoned whipped cream. Thanks for all the great recipes. My family is glad I found your blog!